[Tennie]

(IMG:http://i34.tinypic.com/2la4fg8.jpg)

Picture of starting lineup of the European Cup final
from left, top row: Paolo Maldini, Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Carlo Ancelotti, Frank Rijkaard, Giovanni Galli
bottom row: Franco Baresi, Roberto Donadoni, Billy Costacurta, Angelo Colombo, Mauro Tassotti
This is the Milan club voted best club team of all time by World Soccer Magazine.

Here's the citation:

Arrigo Sacchi's Milan side of the late 1980s and early 1990s revolutionised Italian football with their attack-minded, pressing game.

Sacchi was making a name for himself with Parma in the mid-1980s when he was hired by Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi. At the time, Italian league rules allowed three foreigners in each team. Englishmen Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley were shown the door and in their place Milan hired Dutchmen Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten. They were joined a year later by compatriot Frank Rijkaard.

The trio provided the flair, the Italian players provided the steel, Sacchi provided the tactical discipline. Together they changed the face of Italian and also European football.

A tight defence, marshalled by Franco Baresi and featuring youngsters Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta, provided a platform for a midfield that included Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Donadoni alongside Rijkaard. They in turn provided the bullets for Gullit and Van Basten, who each scored twice as Milan destroyed Steaua Bucharest in the 1989 European Cup final, having beaten Real Madrid 6-1 on aggregate in the semi-final.

Sacchi's men retained the trophy in 1990 – the last team to do so – with a narrow victory over Sven Goran Eriksson's Benfica. They also enjoyed back-to-back World Club Cup success, against Atletico National of Colombia and Olimpia of Paraguay.

I'm probably one of the few boardmembers old enough to remember watching this team play. They were magnificent. Though they didn't become the Invincibles until a couple of years later, they were already very, very special.

Today's Milan is a good side - not perfect, but good. Even so, I wonder who, if any, of them would make Sacchi's starting XI and whose place they would take.

[Fillipo Simone]

Which team is causing much fear nowdays in Serie A?

And by the way, how convincing would you threat a 0-1 Milan win against Pisa, scored in ET via penalty? Nota bene, Pisa's best players then - Dunga and Nista (the future Parma GK)

This post has been edited by Fillipo Simone: Nov 20 2008, 01:22 PM

[acid911]

Which team is causing much fear nowdays in Serie A?

None. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) There top ones (eight or so) are too close for that to happen. We would have caused fear if we won our matches comfortably. A goal in the 6th, 20th and 73rd minute. Two goal wins, comfortable wins, easy on the nerves victories. A touch of pride, a bit of a hubris. We're that good, seriously. No other side in the Italian league matches us both in technique, star power, player unity and overall class.

It's just that we haven't gelled it together. We're weak. Teams think they might be in with a chance. We don't play games scaring opponents, striking fear in their heart. They come to San Siro and are not imitated. Instead they kind of enjoy it knowing our form at home in the last two years. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) For them we are a team that isn't aware of it's prestige and potential. We carve out wins, instead of enjoying toying with our opponents (small teams, I mean) like we used to in early 2000s.

Maybe it's something you've not noticed, and it doesn't make you any less of a fan. But I'll be here knowing that we could be so much better. Not Sacchi Milan, not pre-Istanbul Carlo Milan. But Milan, nonetheless. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif) A warrior squad that had the killer instinct to kill off the match by taking the match to the opponents. Now, we score one, and invite them to come hit us.